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Tyendinaga Township tax jump possible

Early drafts of the operations budget for Tyendinaga Township is calling for a three per cent tax increase to pay the bills in 2018.
Council will have the final say on whether or not certain items will be deferred to shave down the projected increase, said township CAO Steve Mercer.
Next step is presenting council an anticipated $2.5 million budget which Mercer will ask council to allocate to run the municipality this year.
“I’m just starting that now and I will have that for submission to council on March 5,” he said. “They want to keep taxes around three per cent.”
Mercer has already been given the go ahead to start spending, with $1.35 million already approved for capital upgrades this year.
“This is an increase in capital spending,” Mercer said. “We’re usually around the $1 million mark or just short of it.”
The increased spending was buoyed by us being able to “increase our reserves significantly over the last three years and we’re now at $2.2 million in reserves, so I do have some breathing room in order to do this budget.”
The majority of the capital expenditures will be levied against the tax bill, with about $300,000 pulled from reserves.
Leading the package of capital expenditures is a new tanker for the fire department.
“We’re buying a new tanker for $320,000,” Mercer said. “We will probably be buying another pumper in about five years.”
Funds will also be earmarked for environmental issues.
“We have a waste transfer station with an old dump attached to it and we’re closing it off, and that will be $100,000,” he said.
Some key roadwork is also on the agenda, with about $330,000 to be invested in resurfacing about six kilometres of Old Highway 2.
“It’s a nine kilometre stretch that we have between the Marysville four-corners and the Mohawk Territory,” he said of the resurfacing work. “We did the first three kilometres a couple years ago.”
About $120,000 is allocated for upgrades to Marysville Road.
“We’re going to resurface three kilometres at the north end of Marysville Road,” he said.
The expectation is that all the projects will get rolling this summer.
“Hopefully most of the work will be done by the end of summer,” he said.
Mercer has lobbied the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund for $900,000 to replace the Marysville bridge on Highway 2.
“We estimated for $1 million and our cost would be $100,000, if we’re successful” Mercer said. We should hear the nay or yay on that proposal in the next few weeks.”